A new Brigham Young University honors class offers students a chance to slow down and reconnect with themselves and the world around them in a world full of loud sounds and constant movement.
Food, Music, and the 5+ Senses, or HONRS 290R, is a special topics class within the honors program that explores the unexpected connection between food and music.
Honors students who take the class fulfill both their physical science and arts general education requirements; however, the class aims to do much more than simply check boxes for graduation.
“We’re teaching students to really savor their senses,” professor Laura Jefferies said, “and we’re presenting it in really beautiful ways.”
“As I’ve taught the class, I’ve realized what an important mission it is,” professor Christian Asplund said. “It explores the intersections of the five senses, and part of the objective is to increase our ability to engage with other people, other organisms and creation.”
Throughout the semester, students engage in a variety of sensory exercises. These include tasting different flavors and textures of food and learning to listen to sounds from music, the world around them, and even the anechoic chamber in the BYU Eyring Science Center.
“There’s no such thing as silence,” Asplund said during a class focused on bridging the gap between auditory attention and awareness. “When you’re in a chamber built to absorb all sound, it’s so quiet that your ears pick up sounds from your own body.”
While many students admitted to signing up for the class to fulfill general education requirements, they acknowledged noticing its impact in helping them feel more grounded and engaged with the world around them.
After an in-class meditation practice in which students were asked to find a place alone and listen to surrounding sounds for 10 minutes, many reported both mental and physical effects.
“I felt my heartbeat slow down, and time just vanished,” one student said during a class discussion after the activity. “Before I knew it, I picked up my phone and there were only four minutes left.”
According to the Deloitte Global 2025 Gen-Z and Millennial Survey, 40% of Gen-Z report feeling stressed or anxious all or most of the time.
Professors Jefferies and Asplund hope HONRS 290R will help students engage their senses in ways that counter the stresses of an increasingly modernized world.
“Finding a class that is an alternative to taking physical science has helped me a lot, but I’ve also loved discovering a different way of learning,” said Mauricio Morales, HONRS 290R student. “Learning to not just observe, but to use my other senses, has changed my entire experience.”